Powell River Villa received a three-goal performance from striker Jake Kenmuir on Saturday, October 5, to lead the team to a 3-1 win over Sagres FC 3A.
A couple of changes were made in the 14-man lineup for the match against the bigger team in Victoria.
Kenmuir was moved up to the forward position and on the back Ross Fitzgibbon took Matt Liknes’s spot in the net.
The pre-game plan on the big turf pitch was to gain possession and keep it by moving the ball around quickly.
“Our strategy was to keep the ball and let the ball do the work,” explained coach Chris McDonough. “Stay away from the physical play, and if we could do that we knew we would be in good shape.”
It worked perfectly against the older, bigger opposition and at 20 minutes in Kenmuir shook his man and drove a hard shot in the top corner to put Villa up 1-0.
Sagres stepped it up a bit after that but Fitzgibbon made a couple of huge saves and Villa held on to the slim lead at the half.
Villa padded it to 2-0 when Brody Harry beat his man and crossed the ball to Kenmuir who pushed it in at 68 minutes.
The red hot forward scored his third goal at 74 minutes of the game from directly in front of the goal but unfortunately Sagres was able to snatch Fitzgibbon’s shutout with just a few minutes remaining to make the final 3-1.
So far, so good for Villa early in the schedule and McDonough is pleased with his young charges.
“A good result especially on the road where we’ve struggled in the past,” he said. “We’ll take the three points for sure.”
Looking at the division, McDonough said, “All of the other teams so far seem to be bigger than us, but these guys seemed to be the biggest ones yet. They were very big and played physical as well but we had a lot of room and our quick players could get away from them.”
The win was particularly gratifying for Villa given the 2-0 shutout handed to it last week by first place Hellas FC.
“I’m very pleased,” said McDonough. “We made a few changes and they really paid off. A lot of guys stepped up this weekend, and this was a game that we had to win if we wanted to stay in contention.”
He talked about leadership and said of the young veterans, “We’re really relying on them this year. A lot have had bit parts in the past but we’re looking for more from them.”
Looking back on Saturday’s game, he said, “I really liked the fact that even against the bigger, physical team we were not intimidated at all.”
Villa (3-1-0) returns to Timberlane Park at 1:30 pm on Sunday, October 13, where it will face sixth-seeded Lakehill Danger Police 3A (1-2-1).
